Mariánské Lázně, Czech Republic

We were excited to take our first trip to the Czech Republic together.  We set our GPS for the beautiful city of Marianske Lazne. It took us an hour and twenty minutes from Vilseck to Marianske Lazne and we got to test out the speed of our new Volkswagen on the autobahn!

Marianske Lazne is the second largest spa town in the Czech Republic and has gained popularity from its many mineral springs-40 of which emerge in the town itself.  All of the beautiful hotels along the main street have lavish spas where you can enjoy mineral baths and the healing effects of  the mineral waters.

We loved admiring the streets lined with beautiful hotel

We bought a drinking ladle and went to the Křížový Pramen: a corinthian pavilion containing lots of different ferrous, salty, and carbonated mineral waters.  It is believed that people drink these waters to cure different ailments.  Some of the waters were gross, one tasted like the dead sea and another tasted like copper pennies.  Yuck.  After trying a few others we agreed that we liked the Rudolfuv Pramen (Rudolph's water) the most.  Rudolfuv water is known to have benifical medicinal and anti-inflammatory effects, we liked that it was carbonated and didn't taste too salty!

Jordan enjoying the carbonation and high calcium content of  Rudolfuv water.

We enjoyed listening to the singing fountain (it sung Celine Dion for about an hour) as we walked along the main colonnade, and admired the elegance of the spa parks.

The beautiful singing fountain in front of the main colonnade

The parks were designed over 150 years ago, and are preserved and maintained to this day

After all of the walking and exploring we were hungry for some traditional Czech food. Jordan was excited to find an authentic meal, he had only been dreaming about svickova na smetane for the past five years? We found ourselves some svíčková na smetaně- a dumpling dish served with meat, carrot/parsley/celery puree, whipped cream, and cranberries.  A Czech dumpling is nothing like any dumpling served in the states, rather it is more of a steamed bread made of either wheat or potato.  It was a very tasty lunch and very filling.  We indulged in a local specialty dessert, "spa wafers" which were huge wafers filled either hazelnut or chocolate.

Delicious svickova na smetane

Enjoying our traditional Marianske Lazne wafer!

We took a hike to an outside garden called the miniaturpark.  The miniaturpark has displays of famous buildings from the Czech Republic.  We found lots of places that we want to go visit together, and has gotten us excited about our next visit.

We had a wonderful introduction to the Czech Republic as a married couple.  I was thoroughly impressed by Jordan's ability to speak such a hard language, and took such a pleasure in seeing how excited he was to finally be back in his mission country.  I have come to the conclusion that while you may be able to physically take Jordan out of the Czech Republic, but you most certainly cannot take the Czech Republic out of him.  We had such a fun adventure and cannot wait to come back again very soon.